ACP Honors New Jersey Chapter with a John Tooker Evergreen Award

At the 2011 Internal Medicine Meeting, ACP presented six John Tooker Evergreen Awards to honor Chapters that created new programs that strengthened the chapter and increased member communication and involvement.

The New Jersey Chapter received the 2011 John Tooker Evergreen Award for their program, "Evaluating Outcomes: Training Internal Medicine Chief Residents For Future Leadership In Healthcare". Here is a brief description of the chapter's effort.

In an effort spearheaded by former Governor Eileen Moser, the New Jersey Chapter launched a longitudinal Leadership Development program for Associates and Young Physicians in November 2009. 21 internal medicine chief residents participated in at least one of the phases of the program. Phase one was a day-long session centered on the basic tenets of leadership, effective negotiation and problem solving, motivational leadership strategies, pathways to leadership within ACP, and self assessment of leadership traits. Phase two featured a webinar covering the structure of the healthcare system and the reform process. Social media was also incorporated into phase two so that program participants could continue their dialogue after the webinar. Phase three focused on involving program participants in leadership roles during the annual meeting and a final follow-up dinner meeting revisiting the topic of self-assessment. As a result of the program, 33% of participating chief residents fulfilled all of the requirements needed to obtain LEAD certification. The New Jersey Chapter plans to continue this program, which serves as an important way to develop future Chapter leaders.